"The Digital Age Has Crushed Creator Wages"

"Some of the statistical stuff is wonky and hard to explain succinctly. But one of the key objections comes from Johnson's claim that more people are making their livings as musicians. But since the statistical categories were changed midstream to accommodate school teachers, the early numbers and the later numbers become an apples-to-oranges comparison: the numbers of working musicians, it appears, is not going up but down.
"The story also falls back on one of the most common tech-apologist clichés: That while musicians are making less money selling recordings, they are earning a lot of money on the road. It's nice to think so. But while concert revenues are indeed up, bands rarely make a fortune touring–the big money goes to a few superstar acts, and enormous expenses for the musicians mean many groups just break even. Is a constant sequence of vans and Motel 6's really a feasible way for a musician over the age of 25 to make a living? 'I can't stop touring because I will die,' surf-rock legend Dick Dale, who is raising money to cover his health problems, recently said. 'Physically and literally, I will die.'"

In Salon, Scott Timberg responds to Steven Johnson's New York Times Magazine article, "The New Making It."